Police suspect murder-suicide for couple in Davie mobile home

DAVIE — The 911 call came in about 7 a.m. Thursday: A family friend looking in the window of a mobile home at Park City Estates saw what looked like a body lying on the floor.

Inside the home, Davie police discovered the bodies of Kurt Schnitzler, 80, and Lucia Schnitzler, 81. Investigators do not know how long the couple, who neighbors say were struggling with health and financial issues, had been dead.

"All indications appear that it was a murder-suicide," Davie Police Sgt. Rob Choquette said on Thursday morning. Investigators have not yet said who may have killed whom, or described any motive.

Illness, the bills that go with bad health and living isolated from family members can all be factors that may propel elders to consider suicide, experts at Nova Southeastern University said.

"This is a wake-up call for service providers to the elderly," said Cecilia Rokusek, executive director of Nova's geriatric education center at the College of Osteopathic Medicine Training Center in Fort Lauderdale.

Rokusek said nationally, the suicide rate for those older than 65 has risen over the past 15 years. It is 4 percent higher than the 12 percent average rate for people younger than 65.

In Florida, in 2009, deaths by suicide were the ninth leading cause of mortality for all ages, with a total of 2,854, according to the state health department.

For adults aged 75 to 84, there were 245 suicides in Florida that year. Fourteen of them happened in Broward County.

Without addressing the Schnitzlers' situation, Rokusek said 75 percent of elders who commit suicide will see a physician or dentist a month before the act, but won't express their depression or intention to harm themselves.

"There are signs that suicide is imminent," Rokusek said. "They will stop eating, or there may not be anything in the refrigerator because they have unplugged it to save electricity. Maybe the newspaper doesn't arrive anymore or goes unread, or they are tired or sleeping most of the day."

She said that depressed elders also will stop doing activities they may have once fought to continue, like driving. Males over age 85 who live alone are most vulnerable to suicide.

Dr. Naushira Pandya is a NSU professor who treats patients at an elder care clinic there that has about 1,000 geriatric clients.

"We are seeing a lot of telltale signs of financial distress," Pandya said. Indicators include unfilled prescriptions or pills that get cut in half or are taken every other day, to stretch the supply.

They may skimp on routine diabetic blood testing because of the costs of supplies or will postpone visits to specialists who may order expensive tests, the physician said.

"I find they are compromising on nutrition and are buying cheaper food," Pandya said. "They may not come as frequently as I want them to because they don't have the extra $1.50 bus fare. The general feeling is people are cutting back on their necessary things."

Another stressor, Pandya said, is that children who may have helped with health costs in the past may now be unemployed or may have lost a home to foreclosure.

"They're not getting the help they used to get," Pandya said. "Weight goes down, and they cut back on social activities."

The Schnitzler's neighbor, Al Berte, has lived two homes away from the couple for about seven years. He said Karl Schnitzler had severe back problems and Lucia Schnitzler used a wheelchair and had a heart condition.

"They were quiet people. He took care of his property, he took care of his wife. … He just had enough," Berte said. "You could almost tell it was an issue, it was wearing on him."

Longtime resident Barbara Tilley said she was shocked to hear on TV about a crime scene in her usually quiet neighborhood on Southwest 21st Street.

"I thought it had to be another area, it couldn't be Park City," she said. "It just blows my mind. Nothing ever happens here."